this time and place to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of americans. >> reporter: i can't help but marvel what a time this has been for patrick kennedy, losing his father, stepping down from congress, now about to get married and taking on this staggering new mission, the next chapter of course still to be written, but isn't a new beginning all that any of us could hope for? that does it for "patrick kennedy coming clean." i'm dr. sanjay gupta. thanks for watching 37. from cnn center this is joe johns in for t.j. holmes. it's may 28th. good morning. a holiday weekend is usually a great time to see an air show, but this weekend the blue

angeling will not be flying. i'll tell you why. head out for holiday shopping. pretty soon you may be able to leave your wallet at home as long as you have a smartphone with you. and sarah palin, is she about to go for a run for president of the united states? she's certainly making herself a lot more visible these days. almost a week after a tornado tore a half mile path through joplin, missouri, they're still searching for the missing. here's the information on the latest. in one of the most deadly tornadoes in the country. 156 people are unaccounted for as of this morning. the number of dead stands at 132, with more than 1,000 injured. we expect an update on the number of missing and hurt at 11:00 eastern time. more than 2,500 people have applied for federal disaster assistance. fema has approved a $2.8 million grants and aid.

president obama will be in joplin tomorrow to meet with officials and survivors. the president is sure to hear some of the gripping stories of survival and bravery. our paul ver cammen has one such story. he's joining us live from joplin. paul, how are those search and recovery efforts going right now? good morning. >> well, joe, you know, all is very complicated because of the immense debris field. that's where we're starting to hear some of these stories of heroism. if you look behind me, imagine what it was like after the tornado hit. this is considered cleaned up to a degree. some of the debris piled up. all roads were impassable right after the tornado hit in this area. there's a key artery called range line and what happened was, david had his slingshot, well, jason had his chainsaw. a young man 18 years old, a logger, grabs his chainsaw and begins just cutting trees,

debris, wood, anything in its path and he cleared the way for ambulances and all other sorts of rescue personnel and he even went to far to go up to a house where people were trapped and began to cut people out of that. it's a remarkable story of jason and his chainsaw. >> i saw smoke coming out, so i got my chainsaw, cut a hole in the roof to get through and when i did that, the house was on fire and part of the wall kind of came at me. the charcoal from it. that wasn't very fun. i don't like that. >> jason would like to find a woman des ser ray everette, trying to get in contact with her on facebook. there are some people who were bonded together in the moments after the tornado, joe, and then they lost track of each other for a week and there's a lot of such stories of survival and hopefully a lot of happy reunions for those able to survive this tremendous disaster. >> that's right, paul. during all this time, the

president of the united states has been across the pond in europe, and just now getting there to joplin for what is just a huge disaster in the united states, has paid so much attention to it. what are people there saying about the president's visit expected? >> i think that they're very glad that president is coming here. i haven't heard one shred or word of criticism from any of the towns people as to why didn't he leave europe sooner. they're glad he's coming. they've been very resolute in the effort of trying to clean this up and rebuild and, of course, honor and bury the dead and find the missing people. there was no stinging criticism of the president for staying in europe and they're all sort of looking forward to tomorrow and the president, of course, will speak at a local university and so will the governor of missouri. it's expected to be, you know, quite an emotional memorial service, joe. >> certainly is. we'll be watching. thanks so much for that, paul vercammen in joplin. to find out how you can help

those affected by the flooding and devastated by the tornadoes, go to cnn.com/impact. president obama is in poland right now. the stop in warsaw today is the last on his six-day european trip. president obama has been meeting with poland's prime minister on a host of issues, including tourist visas and f-16s. this trip was actually supposed to happen last year, but an ash cloud from a volcano in iceland changed those plans. jared loughner has been moved to a federal hospital in springfield, missouri. three days ago a judge declared loughner isn't mentally fit to stand trial for now at least for the shooting that killed six people and wounded congresswoman gabrielle giffords. he was transferred from tucson to the facility in missouri for further testing. the casey anthony murder trial starts up in less than an hour. yesterday, jurors heard from the owner of a tow company that impounded anthony's car.

he said he smelled what he thought was the stench of decomposing flesh in her car. anthony's father also talked about the smell. >> i didn't want to believe what i was smelling to a point. i was trying to not think too much ahead of myself. >> the odor that you were testifying a moment ago this reminded you of from your past, was that the odor of a human corps? >> yes. >> casey anthony is accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter. the famous blue angels will be taking some time off after their commander stepped down. commander dave koss says he didn't live up to the precision flying team's safety and performance standards during this air show in lynchburg, virginia, last weekend. the angels have canceled their next couple of performances

while a new commander takes over. police in metro atlanta say an armed robbery suspect nicknamed the grandma bandit, was shot and killed following a police chase friday morning, but there's a big twist here. the 57-year-old suspect, believed to be a woman, turned out to be a man. one thing they don't know is whether the suspect's fatal wound was self-inflicted. texas governor rick perry says he's thinking about running for president. that follows comments earlier this week when he said he was tempted but really didn't want to run. he says if he does get in, he'll join an already crowded republican field, but one thing may stand in his way, the gubernatorial campaign manager he had is working for none other than former speaker newt gingrich. sarah palin says she'll be at rolling thunder in washington tomorrow to kick off her nationwide bus tour. rolling thunder is a military

veterans advocacy group that marks memorial day with a motorcycle rally. organizers say they didn't actually invite palin to take part, but they welcome anyone who wants to ride along. helping neighbors in need, we're seeing a lot of that in joplin, missouri in the wake of the deadly tornado there, but it's not just individuals. find out how one business is helping ease the pain in just 60 seconds. you love the aroma of beef tenderloin, don't you? you inspired a very special dog food. [ female announcer ] chef michael's canine creations. chef inspired. dog desired. you can do this... get the ball, girl. hmmm, you can't do that. but you can do this. bengay pain relief + massage with penetrating nubs plus the powerful pain relief of bengay. love the nubs! producing products that save on fuel and emissions like ecopia tires...

even making parts for solar panels that harness the sun's energy... working on social activities like clean up programs on beaches in many locations... and regional replanting activities that will help make a better world for all of us. ♪ one team. one planet bridgestone. you see it in every disaster. neighbors stepping up to help each other in tuscaloosa, alabama, last month. it was a grocery store owner handing out free food from his damaged business. in joplin, missouri, it's a pharmacy helping the community recover. we get more from larry sueward of afillate khsb. >> reporter: their son asks for prayer. see joplin's tornado disaster is personal.

>> just have to help people. just have to help people. >> reporter: lynn morris doesn't live here. it doesn't matter. >> two of our employees actually lost their homes, so we know firsthand what it's like. >> reporter: he's collecting medical supplies, soap, toothpaste, even diabetic shoes from his 30 companies in southwest missouri. it's a giveaway. their store is open, it's centrally located and need is great. >> we're actually trying to fill prescriptions for seven pharmacies right now, and it's a lot of work but we're actually getting every insurance company to do overrides and emergency overrides. we're trying to make sure everybody has somewhere between a seven and ten-day supply. >> reporter: daryn mccormick who's spine condition limits movement is without painkillers. supposed to get them monday but sunday's tornado wiped out his home and pharmacy. >> it's nice this place is helping everybody the best they can. >> reporter: helping is the owner's mission in a town in a state of perpetual need.

you can help the people of joplin, too. just logon to cnn.com/impact and check out our special page. it has all the tools you're going to need to really make a difference. is it is ten minutes after the hour. i know this sounds like a broken record but there is a strong risk of storms in the plain states today. another strong risk of storms in the plain states. >> joe, you could basically take the forecast from last weekend, at least last i guess you could say sunday morning, and re-run it for this morning. good for this saturday morning. what we'll look at is another shot of severe storms. we've already had some severe thunderstorms already. on radar you can see them popping up right on parts of the central plains, especially going from kansas back into missouri. they're intense, dropping quite a bit of rainfall. it's umbrella weather for you. same situations on parts of 44. making the drive from springfield back over to st. louis and you're listening on

satellite radio you know what we're talking about. windshield wiper action that should continue through a good part of the day. out to the west the situation will be different. talking about snoefrl. snowfall. it has been the longest ski season ever for steamboat, aspen, supposedly opening up some of their ski runs for the weekend. even when you get into the sierra nevada mountains into the cascades snow will be a big story for you. we are going to see some of that pop up into parts of yellowstone too, yen trol and northern rockies and mountains towards the west. the reason we're seeing to the west, this area of low pressure that's going to pull in quite a bit of moisture from the pacific, but you've got the cold air sliding in from the north, the south, that interaction will give you the heavy snowfall. some places especially along i-70 going westbound, be careful in the high mountain passes. we mentioned the severe storms. in the southeast it's going to be very muggy for you. pop-up thunderstorms a possibility and in terms of travel, anyone making a flight out of atlanta today and going to the midwest, could get quite bumpy at times. look for delays maybe in chicago. maybe even into detroit before all is said and done because we're going to see that chance

of rainfall exist from minneapolis back to places like chicago where highs will be in the 70s. 79 in new york, 75 the high in boston, 91 in memphis. 67 in denver and 69 in los angeles. 92 in albuquerque. 101 in el paso. we're into the century mark. for the rest of your memorial day weekend most of the places you're going to have rainfall today, unfortunately, looks like it might be the same situation into sunday and monday. expect the rain drops to stick around for quite a bit. if you were to draw a line from near new york, clear back over to say redding, california, all points northward, rain may be in the picture, also the snow we talked about in the mountains, but everything south, muggy and warm, hot in west texas, high humidity for much of the gulf coast, big surprise there. of course the scattered showers certainly may pop up, occasional thunderstorms for portions of central florida including the mouse house at disney and as far south as key west, joe. >> with all that snow, this late in the season, that stuff is going to melt and then you could

have even more floods going much later than you normally do, right? >> there's always that possibility. i will tell you that in some places, especially into the rockies and sierra nevada, it's as though the landscape is better equipped to handle that kind of thing, than what we saw in parts of the midwest. into say where we had 600 times the amount of snowfall in parts of say the upper midwest, hence the flooding in the mississippi river area. it could be interesting to watch, say the very least. >> oh, boy. all right. >> never ends. >> yeah. weather is weather. thanks. be back at you. how much vacation time does your company give you? if it's not much you should check out cnn's money list of companies with the best vacation perks. google makes the list by offering 15 to 25 vacation days depending on how long employees have worked. they also get 12 paid holidays and all the sick time they need. that's pretty nice. software maker intuit offers

flexibility and healthy amount of time off. employees get up to five weeks off and could save up to two years worth of vacation days and take it all off in one big chunk of time. that would be pretty nice. a vacation that's a year long. did i mention the 32 days of -- hours of paid volunteer time. not all the best perks come from computer companies, of course. st. jude children's research hospital has the most all truistic vacation policies. employees not only get 15 to 20 paid days off but the company has a vacation time bank. staffers can deposit unused personal time and sick leave and make those days available to other employees who are in need. you think these companies are generous? what if your company didn't even count the number of vacation days you took. i'll tell you who does right after this. confidence available in color. depend® colors for women. looks and fits

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before the break, i told you about some companies with great vacation perks. what about the ultimate perk of all. unlimited vacation time. about a year ago, the software company hub spot stopped tracking its employees vacation and sick days completely. company officials say the change has reduced administrative costs and employees, take the time they need, it's also been a great recruiting tool. other companies with a similar policy of not tracking vacation time include morning star, ibm, best buy and netflix.

compared to the rest of the world u.s. workers not only get fewer days off, they don't take all the days they do get. in fact, only 38% of u.s. workers say they take all of their vacation days. according to an expedia.com survey, the average worker in the u.s. got 18 vacation days last year, but used only 14 of them. in france, workers got 37 days of vacation and used 35 of them. in great britain, workers received 28 vacation days and used 25. if you're planning to use some of your vacation at the beach this summer you want to stick around. at 10:30, tech expert katie lindhdal will share great beach gadgets you might want to take. if you try to take a swim in a public pool this weekend, don't be surprised if it's closed. the government announced a recall on thursday of about 1 million pool and spa drain covers. the consumer products safety commission says they could pose a risk to swimmers.

pool drains have about 500 pounds of vacuum force. the federal agency says poorly designed covers can trap swimmers, especially young children, under water. >> hold the butter, professors at the university of maine, yes, it had to be there, have found an eco-friendly use for lobster shells instead of throwing the shells away, they're being used to make biodegradable golf balls. joe carter of hln sports cracks open this story. in today's "start small, think big." >> reporter: these are the sights and sounds of maine's lobster industry. but here's a new one. it looks and sounds like a golf ball, but it's made of recycled lobster shells. >> it's a dynamic, exciting combination, lobsters and golf. >> reporter: the mix an idea from one of robert bayer's

graduate students and took form one night in his kitchen. >> i did it on a whim. cooked up a few lobsters, groubds ground them up in the blender and made a golf ball mold of plaster. >> reporter: he took the prototype to research labs at the university of maine where david, an undergraduate student and alex, added the final touches. >> what we did was take the concept, make a product out of it. had to look like a golf ball, perform like a real golf ball as much as possible. >> reporter: except this one is 100% biodegradable breaking down in the ocean about two week's time. >> we're targeting single use balls. looking at the cruise ship industry which up until '91 you were able to hit golf balls off the back of ships and then it was banned for pollution reasons. >> reporter: the idea beyond the cruise ships and golf courses, he thinks it's the lobster fishing industry that will take the upswing. >> it used to go to the landfill and it has values. our hope this comes back to the

fishermen in more return for their harvest. >> reporter: the balls are being handmade in the labs but the university is working on plans to get them into production and into the water very soon. joe carter, cnn. >> from the water back to the water. that's pretty good. just how smart do you want your phone to be? google is betting you'll let it handle your financial affairs. mario armstrong is going to tell you how new virtual wallet works.

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google wants to turn your smartphone into a virtual wallet. the technology would let you get coupons on your phone and make payments by waving it at the checkout counter. our lifestyle expert mario armstrong joins me now. you're in new york for this announcement. google is partnering with a couple other companies. give us an idea how this thing would work? >> that's right, joe. i mean, essentially we were there in new york city when this was announced. it was to a small group of journalists that were allowed to go in and see this event,

although they did stream it on-line. the bottom line is, they want to be able to make it so that you can now use your phone to be able to be your wallet of the future. you no longer would have to dig for credit cards or look for things in your purse. you would use your purse to tap at the merchant's register and be able to pay for everyday goods from food to clothing and other items. >> are we talking about an application you would download or would you have to get a new kind of phone? >> both. great question. this is a free app, and it's an android only app at this point. and it's only available on the nexus s phone, a google phone, android phone. this will roll out initially to san francisco, new york city, and those markets initially, but then it will roll out to future phones and other markets over the summer and over the year. >> are we talking about this year or how soon? >> well, we're definitely talking this year. one of the things they stress at the announcement they want to

make this an open platform. they want as many partners and as many manufacturers of phones, banks, credit card companies and others, to be involved in this because they need that in order for this ecosystem to truly take off and for consumers to really adopt it. they're going to be pushing rather quickly for this, but they're using mastercard technology, which already exists at a lot of merchants already, over 100,000 or so merchants have these little terminals where you can basically take your -- this google nexus s phone and tap it to make that transaction, pay for that transaction. >> so what ability security of information? that's the other thing. you know, what happens if you lose the phone, what happens if you walk past the scanner and it sets it off, are you going to get charged? >> you're right, joe. all of these things are legitimate concerns and security is not handled that's going to be a big issue. we had a chance to speak with mastercard's president kris mcwilton. here's what he had to say when i asked him about security. >> there's a number of different layers of security. the first is, many people based on the -- on their existing

phone today, they have the ability to lock the phone. so you can't access the phone without knowing a password. there's another level of security on top of the wallet which says to access the wallet, to make a payment, you have to enter another pass code. >> so there are a couple layers there. number one, with the technology itself. to really break this down without being too technical, joe, there is a special chip that's embedded in the phone, the chip is called an nfc cheap, near field communication, is the technology. that chip is encrypted you have to use pin codes and then you can do other things like you would if you lost your credit card or wallet, you would simply call your banks or call the companies to let them know it's now missing. here's the thing, joe. you would probably know that you lost your phone way faster than you would if you're missing a credit card. that's my guess. >> yeah, that's for sure. absolutely. and mine is a blackberry, so i'm kind of addicting to ing ting d

to it which is not good. >> break that addiction. >> absolutely. thanks so much for that, mario. join us every saturday at this time as our digital lifestyle expert, mario armstrong, gives the scoop on the latest technology. on the heels of google's announcement of the virtual wallet, paypal filed a lawsuit accusing google of stealing employees and trade secrets. for two years paypal and google had been in negotiations for paypal to provide the payment system to google's app store. the lawsuit says google ended the talks and decided to build its own competing product using former paypal employees and executives. this has been the deadliest year for tornados in decades. >> it's getting big, big, big. >> that's huge. >> i got it all on video. i got it all on video. >> we'll explain the factors that came together to make this such a terrible year. [ male announcer ] edmunds.com says that lexus holds its value

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personal pricing now on brakes. tell us what you want to pay. we do our best to make that work. deal! my money. my choice. my meineke. it's about 31 minutes after the hour. welcome back. i'm joe johns. thanks for starting our day with us. we're starting your day with us, either way. checking top stories in

pakistan, some payback from the taliban for the killing of osama bin laden. the terror group is claiming responsibility for a blast that left eight people dead, another dozen wounded. it happened in the village of poshta near the afghanistan border. in poland president obama is about to wrap up his six-day european tour. he is meeting with the prime minister. earlier he met with the president. mr. obama is set to depart poland in the next hour. and reports out of australia say poland native margo dydek, a 7-foot former professional basketball player has died. she had a heart attack last week. she was 37 years old, a former number one draft pick. she was considered the tallest professional female basketball player in the world. now, let's talk about the fearsome power of a tornado. we've been hearing about it a lot this week. now you can have a closer view of how they operate. a group of storm chasers spent

the week trailing twisters from state to state as they tore across the midwest. take a look at this. it's coming. power lines right here. we're good. my god. >> breaking in now. president obama speaking in warsaw. he is getting ready to return to the united states from poland, meeting with the prime minister, donald tusk, talking about a number of issues there with the president and prime minister, including issues of visas, whether the station fighter jets permanently in poland. >> can overcome extraordinary challenges and build a democracy

that represents the great strength and character of this nation. while now serving as an example for europe and the world. during our conversations, we reaffirmed the strength of our alliance. our alliance is rooted in shared history, shared values, deep ties among our people. our lines are cemented through nato and the iron clad commitment that article 5 of nato represents. of course, our alliance is also rooted in shared interests and during our lunch reviewed a wide range of issues. i wanted to congratulate poland on behalf of the united states for reaching the incredible milestone of assuming the presidency of the european union. this is poland's first opportunity to take on this leadership role since joining the eu. and it speaks to the incredible progress that poland has made both politically and economically during this period of time.

and we look forward to working closely with poland as it assumes these new responsibilities. along those lines, we are interested and excited about poland's plans for the eastern partnership as a priority of its eu presidency. i understand it will host a summit this fall to raise awareness and support for eastern europe and the south caucuses and the dinner i had yesterday was an indication of poland's leadership in helping to shape a vision for the region that continues down a path that offers more opportunity and more prosperity to people and, obviously, one of the important roles that poland can play is not just as a promoter of ideas but as a living example of what is possible when countries take reform seriously. we're also aiming to expand our bilateral economic relationship with poland as the prime minister mentioned.

poland's economy was the only economy in the eu not to fall into recession during the economic crisis. and has enormous potential for economic growth. so far as a consequence this fall, we will hold a high-level u.s./poland business round table which brings together private and public sector leaders to identify and promote new opportunities to boost economic growth and the idea that was raised by the prime minister about a potential innovation fund that is a part of this fall summit. i think is an excellent idea, so we're going to pursue that actively. we also discussed the potential for us to cooperate on a wide range of clean energy initiatives, including how we can in an environmentally sound way develop natural gas in both the united states and poland and how we can cooperate on the

technology and science around that. the united states is also fully committed to supporting safe, nuclear power generation in poland and we're prepared to offer our expertise of the largest and safest nuclear power industry in the world. and finally, we discussed the issue of how jointly we can promote democracy. the session that i had this morning with democracy promotion experts, including many of the founders of solidarity, who recently traveled to tunisia to share their advice and assistance, is just a symbol of why poland is so important. it has gone through what many countries want to now go through and has done so successfully, and so the united states wants to work with poland and we welcome their leadership in reaching out to north africa and the middle east. at the same time, as the prime

minister mentioned, here in this neighborhood, we still have challenges. we discussed in particular the unacceptable situation in belarus. the president has shown a total disregard for democratic values, the rule of law, and the human rights of his own people. in his brutal crackdown, included the conviction and sentencing of presidential candidates who challenged him in the presidential election and the repression and imprisonment of members of the free press, including one of the polish press, so since this crackdown has begun, poland and the united states have coordinated closely on belarus, both bilaterally and through the eu. we appreciate poland's leadership on this issue, including the strong support of belarus civil society and the generosity, to its people. we are looking forward to strong

cooperation on this front. last point i guess i will make, we discussed our respective relationships with russia and i am a strong believer that the reset between the united states and russia has benefits this region as well as the united states and russia because it's reduced tensions and has i think facilitated genuine dialog about how each country can move forward. we very much appreciate poland's pragmatic approach to their relationship with russia. i applaud the prime minister for his determination to continue these efforts, even if it is not always the most politically popular thing to do. we both believe that we cannot compromise on our most cherished principles and ideals but we should also seek to cooperate where we can. for example, in areas like counterterrorism,

counternarcotics, the spread of nuclear weapons and materials and spread of joint operations in afghanistan. so this has been an excellent visit. it's fitting that i conclude my trip here in poland at each stop i've affirmed the fact that america's transatlantic alliance is the corner stone of our engagement in the world. it's ins dispensable to the peace and prosperity of the world. it helps to uphold the principles of rule of law and individual liberty around the world and i think that poland is a leader on all these issues. congratulations, mr. prime minister, for your outstanding leadership, and to the polish people, thank you so much for your incredible hospitality. thank you. thank you, sir. [ speaking foreign language ]

>> translator: we know that the american administration [ inaudible ]. for the polish people. what are the ideas? when can they come into force? in other words, when people of poland will be able to do shopping at fifth avenue in new york, certainly? second question, how do you see the cooperation in the area of security between poland and america and between america and the european union and my third, last question, is did you talk about political repressions in belarus and the arrest of [ inaudible ]. >> well, i'm going to try to remember all those questions. with respect to the visa issue, this is a topic brought up by your president when he visited

the white house and i promised at that time that we would begin to try to find a solution. the problem has to do with the existing law that had a very specific criteria for who gets the waiver visa system and that criteria was based on the rejection rate of visas. poland didn't qualify under that law and i could not simply wave the law, but what i've now done is put my support behind legislation in congress that would change the criteria so that we're looking at the overstay rate of visas and our expectation is that by this change in the law, we can be in a position to resolve this issue in a way that is satisfactory to poland, but also meets the security concerns of the united states. we very much want you to shop on

fifth avenue and anywhere else in the united states. with respect to -- see, i've forgotten the other questions. there's belarus -- energy security. with respect to energy security, as i mentioned earlier, we had an extensive discussion about both shale gas and nuclear power. i think prime minister tusk and i both believe that it is important for us to diversify our energy sources. the united states doesn't want to be energy independent on anybody and poland doesn't want to be energy dependent on anybody. and what that means is there has to be a broad set of energy approaches. shale gas is an important

opportunity. it has to be developed in an environmentally secure and sensitive way. we believe that there's the capacity technologically to extract that gas in a way that is entirely safe and what we want to do is to be able to share our expertise and technology with poland in a fully transparent and accountable way because we think that consumers, environmentalists, everybody should look at the data and say this is something that can actually work. with respect to nuclear power, similarly, we have to do it in a way that is safe and secure. obviously all of us are mindful of what happened in japan. and we have a great track record and enormous expertise in the united states of developing nuclear power in a way that is safe and secure. and we are happy to consult with the polish government and have our companies consult with the polish government in terms of how to approach that.

that does not eliminate the need for us in both countries and all around the world to continue to develop other clean energy sources like solar, like wind, biomass, and we are putting a lot of basic research dollars into this clean energy space because we think it's going to be important not only for our individual countries, but for dealing with greenhouse gases and climate change. and the final point with respect to belarus, we had as i indicated an extensive conversation. i am familiar with the case of the journalist you just mentioned. and we agreed that we have to apply as much pressure as we can on belarus to change its practices. and that's going to require close coordination between the united states and poland, but also between the united states and all of europe and i think

poland is uniquely situated during its presidency to be able to show extraordinary leadership on this issue. >> translator: one sentence for me to refer to the three issues raised by you. as far as belarus is concerned i stated with satisfaction and our views, we are 100% aligned. there is no future for dictatorships as the one presented in belarus. boerts the united states and poland will be viciously setting forth a trail or just the road for conducting for the international community so that the bella russian people did not have to pay a price and for a longer period. i informed president obama about our interpretation of the events

in the belarussian economy. talking about the victims of the regime including our journalists, your journalists or our journalists and your colleague, the president and myself too, both informed president obama about this particularly polish problem. talking about visa waiver and fifth avenue. what is and what should be important in poland is that more and more polish people make enough money to be able to afford shopping on fifth avenue and it means that it is in the interest of the united states to make sure that as many polish people as possible could get the shops in fifth avenue but all over the united states and there is this possible way because there is a business for both parties. i want to already say mr. president there are other places in the world where you can buy

things and where you can spend your money. i am really very glad that there are very clear signs and your personal engagement, mr. president, and this most probably also allow american people to make more money on polish buyers. talking about security, this is a breakthrough moment. i'm not talking about our conversation here, but it is simply that reconfirmation of the -- that we are approaching and the energetic breakthrough it's not really joking or kidding. we are speaking about technological cooperation, about joint vincements and political cooperation of the two nations out of which one is an absolute leader in the area of technology and the other one, poland, turned out to be one of the leaders in terms of the deposits, resources. that is why it was with great satisfaction that i received the words of the united states, that

in the united states, people think very seriously about cooperation. we want to combine our ideas about cooperation and technological cooperation with the sectors that will be cooperating in real terms with each other. it's mainly about power sector. we want to reconfirm the full will of the polish party to be fully open in the area of nuclear power. american people will be very valuable partner to us as a country which is really experienced and with goodwill. >> for the american press corps, scotts orally, national public radio. >> thank you. mr. prime minister, can you tell me if poland today feels reassured about the u.s. commitment to poland's security and if coming into this meeting, you felt that reassurance was required? and mr. president, you've talked a lot this week about inspiration, inspiration in northern ireland for the middle

east peace process, inspiration in eastern europe for the arab spring. i wonder if you take home with you also some cautionary lessons about the challenges in the experience here and in northern ireland and what you can do as president to maintain that emmer sewn yan enthusiasm at a time of fiscal austerity in the u.s. and europe? >> translator: well, these were my first words during the meeting with president obama. i spoke about the security of poland. the security of poland has a different dimension, so people every day feel safer and more secure if they do not have to pay the high prices. this i mentioned of security will be achieved by us when we have energy independence and when both of us act effectively for stability and peace in different regions of the world.

risk. danger. high living costs. they are born where conflicts are born. while the speculation feeds on unrest and war, that's why this dimension of security of both poland and the united states, requires our cooperation so that we could stabilize the situation in the world especially in the regions which are really very much suffering from the conflict. the director security of poland i have to tell you it is a very important sign for us to reach an agreement which will be finalized by the signing of the memorandum of understanding, the memorandum that in the future, will mean american troops on the polish soil, but the order of magnitude is not really large, but the gesture is very significant.

secondly, we spoke about the future of the installation, the so-called missile defense. president obama also informed public opinion in poland long time ago and i want to stress very strongly that the words i heard from him today give us a sense that together we work also for the sake -- for the purpose of polish security. these words that nato is to defend nato, these words are very much binding, binding for all the members of nato and i also wanted to thank for these words. definitely after this meeting with our -- with pure conscience i can tell you with the united states bilaterally and nato leads to the fact that every year poland becomes a country more secure and our political cooperation as mentioned by president obama, leads it to that poland to perhaps never in the future where will it have to use arms in this part of europe.

both of us focus very much on political methods of conflict resolution and solving threats and i believe that this is the best way to guarantee security to poland, but you know, you have to be cautious and you have to be insured that is why we speak about the military aspects of security. >> just a point about security. as i said, poland is one of our closest and strongest allies that's been demonstrated time and again. really what we did here today was simply to reconfirm what prime minister tusk and i have discussed before, which is the nato is the strongest alliance in history, primarily because it has a very simple principle and that is we defend each other. that's what article 5 is all about. and when i came into office, i indicated to all the nato members that there's no such thing as a new nato member or an

old nato member. there are just nato members. and everybody's the same and everybody has the same rights and the same responsibilities. and as a consequence, one of the things that i initiated was making sure that we have actual contingency plans for each country, including those in eastern europe and central europe that obviously are coming out of a fairly recent and difficult history of security issues. now, as prime minister mentioned, that evolution of our security relationship continues to evolve. the aviation detachment that is being finalized will be significant and we're proud we've gotten that completed. our missile defense plans we have laid out that involve poland, will allow us to deal with shared threats.

what we want to do is create an environment in this region in which peace and security are a given. that's not just good for this region. it is good for the united states of america. and we will always be there for poland. now, i wasn't sure because it was such a clever question, what exactly cautionary notes you wanted me to address. were you referring to cautionary notes about what's happening around the world? were you talking about cautionary notes and any reflections about what's taking place back home. i want to make sure i answer your question. >> northern ireland and i said the end point in northern ireland and eastern europe is a happy end point but in terms of the process, length of time, obstacles, challenges, patience that was required, if there's

something that you learned on this trip that you take home that maybe gives you thoughts about how you will approach that as president and maintain the interest in a country where our attention spans are short and our resources are limited? >> i think it's an excellent question and this has been something that i've been reflecting on throughout this trip. keep in mind what the purpose of this trip was from my perspective. in addition to re-establishing a wonderful conversation with strong friends and allies. i wanted to make sure that everybody in our country, but everybody around the world, understands that the transatlantic alliance remains a corner stone, a foundation stone, for american security. we share ideals, we share values, and we have taken on

consistently leadership on some of the toughest challenges that face the world. and part of that leadership has always been the promotion of freedom and democracy in different regions. i was struck by something that the president in the senate or head of the senate here in poland mentioned during our democracy forum, that he had lived through three waves of revolutionary transformation in his lifetime. he saw the shift from military rule to democracy in latin america. he saw those changes then take place with incredible speed when the berlin wall came down and the iron curtain was pulled us under. and now he's seeing what's happening in north africa and the middle east. and in each of these cases, what

you have is a process that's not always smooth. there are going to be twists and turns. there are going to be occasions where you take one step forward and two steps back, sometimes you take two steps forward and one step back. what's required, i think, is number one, understanding that you have to institutionalize this transformation. it's not enough just to have the energy, the initial thrust of those young people in tahrir square or the initial enthusiasm of the solidarity movement, that then has to be institutionalized and the habits of countries have to change. it's not sufficient just to have elections. you then also have to have a process to establish rule of law and the respect of the rights of

minorities and a constant vigilance when it comes to do with freedom of the press and freedom of speech and freedom of litt religion and you have to then broker a whole set of potential ethnic conflicts that may arise. and sometimes those may flair into violence. so part of the lesson is that you have to institutionalize change and that is a hard process and it's a long process. number two, is that countries on the outside cannot impose this change, but we can really help. we can facilitate and we can make a difference and the testimony of i think the people that i've spoken to here in poland as is true when i had conversations about the

resolution of the northern ireland conflict, was that american participation, american facilitytation of dialog, our investment in civil society, our willingness to do business, our openness to ultimate membership in international institutions like nato, all those things made a difference. it solidifies, it fortifies people's impulse that change is possible. and so to the american people, even at a time when we have fiscal constraints, even at a time where i spend most of my day thinking about our economy and how to put folks back to

work and how to make sure that we're reducing gas prices and, you know, how we stabilize the housing market and how we innovate and adapt and change so that we are fully competitive in the 21st century and maintain our economic leadership, i want the american people to understand we've got to leave room for us to continue our tradition of providing leadership when it comes to freedom, democracy, human rights. and, you know, in the dinner last night, i thought something was -- very interesting was said. these are central european leaders and presidents from all across this region. one of them said, you know, there were those who said we could not handle democracy, that our cultures were too different.

but america had faith in us. and so now we want to join with america and have faith in those in the middle east and in north africa even if some don't think that they can handle democracy or that their cultures are too different. our experience tells us something different. i think that's a good lesson for all of us to remember. and i think that poland can play an extraordinary role precisely because they have traveled so far, so rapidly, over the last 25 years. we're looking forward to being a strong partner with them because when we work together, that's a force multiplier. the more we have strong leaders like poland working alongside us, the more successful we can be in dealing with north africa and middle east and encouraging the best impulses in that region and that's going to be good for

all of our security. thank you very much. >> there you go. president of the united states in warsaw with prime tusk. most of that self-explanatory. a long discussion about democracy in poland's central europe. one of the interesting things you may have heard just waking up, haven't had your coffee yet, the president talking with people there at that news conference in poland about shopping on fifth avenue in new york city. this is actually a reference to visas. a lot of people in poland concerned about the fact they have to get visas to come to the united states, would like to eliminate those prohibitions to make it easier for people from poland to come here to the united states to shop, for example, so the president telling them he's behind legislation that would get rid of some of the prohibitions. now, checking top stories. a series of explosions have been heard this morning in the

libyan capital of tripoli. one of the blasts is believed to have been near the compound of embattled ruler moammar gadhafi. libyan official says the blast are from nato forces. nato is confirming one air strike that targeted a former military installation near the gadhafi palace. after being shut for almost four years, today egyptian authorities re-opened the rafah border crossing into gaza. israel fears the crossing could be used by militants to smuggle in weapons. gill scott-hern died friday in new york. he was best known for the 1970 politically and socially charged song "the revolution will not be televised." scott-heron was 62 years old. first the latest on search and recovery efforts in joplin, missouri. 156 people are still missing, six days after a tornado plowed

a four-mile long swath thigh the city. the death toll stands at 132 with more than 1,000 injured. we expect an update on those numbers at 11:00 eastern. president obama is returning from that overseas trip today and will be in joplin tomorrow. and it is in joplin this morning where we find our own paul vercammen. paul you're standing in a pile of debris and i do assume that is a neighborhood or at least it used to be? >> it sure was. this is going to give you a sense of how difficult it was for the first responders early on in the tragedy. i'll take a walk and show you right here this was a neighborhood, the whole neighborhood is gone, and as i continue to stroll here you see off in the distance of this massive debris field that is a hospital, st. john's regional medical center. you would say a lot of the people could be brought here quickly. unfortunately, the hospital oblitera obliterated, parts of the fas sad completely torn off.

there was tremendous loss of life. across town, one of those people who would lose their life in this tragedy, 59 years old, dean wells, army veteran, they called him the whistler, he's a manager at home depot. he was out and about, helping people get to shelter. he didn't secure his own safety. he died. talking to his family, he's going to be memorialized later today. they're not surprised at all that dean wells would give his life for others. >> he was always helping other people. i mean, i miss him, but i'm glad that if he had to lose his life, he lost it the way he lived it. >> reporter: a memorial for dean wells, just one of the many this weekend, joe, that they'll be holding here in joplin as we begin to remember those whose bodies they have been able to retrieve. back to you, joe. >> paul vercammen in joplin, the picture behind you says a thousand words, so much devastation. we appreciate your reporting there. we haven't heard too much

from her recently but sarah palin is back on the scene or on a bus. the former alaska governor starts a bus tour tomorrow, called the one nation tour. it's not a formal announcement but you never know. cnn deputy political director paul steinhauser joins me from washington. paul, we've talked about this before. do you think this bus tour is sort of drumming up buzz for sarah palin or is she getting her running shoes on? >> i think only sarah palin knows that, joe. i would love to get inside her head and know what she's thinking. there have been a bunch of signals lately. we put a graphic. started about a week ago when she was asked if she still had interest in running for the white house and she said i still have fire in my belly. we learned a pro-palin film she launched will premier next month, where else, iowa? she rehired political staffers let go last year. she's buying a house in arizona. it's easier to run for the presidency in arizona than alaska, and of course the bus

tour. but there are also signs she may not be running for the white house. she hasn't taken any concrete efforts, built up any staff, visited the early voting states of iowa, new hampshire, south carolina. that may change soon. no change in her status with her contract with fox. she's a paid contributor. fox did put pressure on mike huckabee who decided not to run, but also on gingrich and santorum, now candidates or will be candidates. tips she's running maybe, some tips she's not running, joe. >> the other question is, if she were to get in the race, who would be affected by it the most? we know we've got romney running, we know we've got michelle bachmann, expected to get in very, very soon. who does she hurt if palin jumps in? >> great question. you and vi been talking about that a lot the last couple days. start with bachmann the congresswoman from minnesota, she could be hurt, bachmann and palin are popular among tea party activists. palin could steal voters away

from bachmann there. in iowa, bachmann, iowa very important to bachmann if she runs for the white house, a victory there. palin could steal voters in iowa. her main kaine, ceo of godfather's pizza, popular among tea party activists. palin could hurt him with those voters as pel. tim pawlenty could be hurt in iowa, he's expecting or hopes to do well in iowa. palin could steal voters from him. and rick santorum, former senator from pennsylvania, popular with social conservatives but so is sarah palin. if she runs she overshadows him and maybe hurts him. >> thanks so much, paul steinhauser. a lot of time to talk about this one. >> oh, yeah, we sure do. >> we'll be back in touch. >> the famous blue angels will be taking off some time after their commanders stepped down. commander david cos says he didn't live up to the precision flying team safety and performance standards during this air show in lynchburg, virginia, last weekend. the angels have canceled their

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we're hearing slight risk of strong storms in the plain states. and that could also mean an isolated tornado, but we're not talking about joplin, are we? >> i think joplin is going to be

safe. points north, though, may be a little bit under the gun, so to speak. we're all a little bit scary about this kind of stuff. it's been rough over the last couple weeks. we've been talking about this stuff happening in parts of alabama, through parts of the southeast, of course and when you get into missouri and even into portions of arkansas, the weather has been exceptionally rough. i'll tell you right now we're keeping a sharp eye on what may happen later on today for parts of the central plains and back into the mid-mississippi valley. slight risk from the storm prediction center and that may include some tornadoes. one of the places we're watching has been in parts of missouri. joplin right here just down in the corner but north of springfield we've seen some of the splash and dash showers. we've had clearing east of wichita but what might happen is you might see the temperatures boost up a bit and that, combined with all that unstable air, could make for pretty rough things in the afternoon. thunderstorms a possibility. very quickly as we jump into the rest of your forecast you see that zone of that severe weather that's actually stretching from parts of colorado back into

portions of say illinois by the late afternoon. we're keeping a sharp eye on the coast. a lot of people heading out there for a great holiday weekend for galveston and mobile and destine, a slight chance of rain in some spots. better in tampa and miami a 40% probability into tampa by the late afternoon. as we make our way to the outer banks and up towards hilton head, 30% chance of rain there and then in atlanta city, virginia beach and cape cod, temperatures in the 70s and 80s with a chance of rain on the coast each day. we're going to continue to follow your beach forecast for tomorrow and, of course, into monday, the time of the year people head out. >> great. well, thanks so much, reynolds. we'll be back. i mean hurricane season is starting soon, right? >> june 1st. we're going from the severe weather season in terms of tornadoes, now making a jump into tropical systems. >> different part of the country, though. >> oh, yeah. a little bit. >> you bet. thanks. save money and help the troops, it's as easy as snip snip. the king of coupons is coming up next with tips to slim down your grocery bill and more.

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before you head to the grocery store this weekend, listen up. imagine racking up a thousand dollar grocery bill and you pull out a single $50 bill and some coupons and it's all paid for. well that's what one man, what every trip to the grocery store is like. and what's really impressive, is that it's also being used to help u.s. troops overseas. clipping coupons. how does he do it? how does he help the troops, save money? nathan engle featured on "extreme couponing" joins us this morning. see the show wednesday nights on tlc. nathan, how long have you been extreme couponing and give us an

idea why you started this? >> well, i've been couponing for about three, three and a half years, and i started it because my wife and i got married and we combined our finances and i'll tell you, we were drowning in debt. we had so much debt, just incredible. we started setting a grocery budget and through setting a budget i realized i had to stretch my money. i naturally turned to coupons to do that. >> you know i went on your website and side up because i'm something of a coupon fanatic myself. some folks, though, accuse you and other couponers on the show of being a hoarder, but the most important thing that we've been talking about all weekend here at cnn, is all the groceries that you're buying that benefits troop. give us an idea of how all this works? >> what we can do, is we buy a lot of stuff as you can see on tlc's extreme couponing. we can give it away and we're empowered to give through that. a lot of people when they see the show they say those people

have so much stuff in their garage but they don't understand the purpose of why we stockpile. we tell people why would you pay for something later when it's free or cheap today. it doesn't make sense. but if it's free or cheap today, buy a couple extra so you can give it away. and that's the cool thing of what we're doing, empowered to give to organizations like operation troop aid, operation home front. those are great organizations you can support. this week there are wipes free at major grocery stores that's a highly requested item troops in afghanistan request. those i wouldn't be able to buy $300 or $400 worth if i didn't have coupons. because i have those i can get those wipes and donate them to the troops in afghanistan. >> how many boxes of stuff you have in your house right now? >> i have a lot. if you watch the show you can see my stockpile. it's a pretty im -- impresses me sometimes. but i mean what our stockpile is really designed to present me from spending $200 or $300 at the store. i think i have like 20 or 30

tubes of toothpaste, about 50 boxes of cereal, about 300 or 400 cans of vegetables and soup, so bshs but those things are great. they have a great shelf life and don't have to buy them when they're expensive at the store. >> you're an extreme example but is there any way the average shopper can do this, use coupons to donate stuff to troops? >> sure. you know, you can get on our website and that's a great place where you can learn how to do this, and it's simple for the average shopper. doesn't take too much time if you know what you're doing. we liken this to chess. you have to learn to play the game. if you learn how to play the cow pan game you will play it well. websites like ours are a great way to empower you to learn. we provide you with lists and coupon matchups that will make the time you spend doing this a lot quicker. >> i've read you sort of dumpster dive for coupons. how does that work? >> yeah. i dumpster dive for coupons because who wants to spend money for them.

buy the newspaper and buy a lot of newspapers you spend 20 or 30 or $40 and that can be counterintuitive. we stress creative ways to find coupons cheaply. sometimes you go to a convenient store -- i'm sorry like a cafe and see if anybody's purchased a paper and discarded it. go to a dumpster and pick out the newspaper, sunday newspapers that have coupons in them. lots of ways to get coupons for cheaply. >> nathan, thanks so much. you're coming to us from cincinnati, which is my home state of ohio, and good to see you up bright and early. thanks a lot. >> thank you so much. ready to get a new car? memorial day weekend is always a good time to get a great deal, but maybe not this year. we'll tell you why, next. [ mal] in 2011, at&t is at work, building up our wireless network all across america. we're adding new cell sites... increasing network capacity, and investing billions of dollars to improve your wireless network experience. from a single phone call to the most advanced data download,

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intellichoice proclaims that lexus has the best overall value of any brand. ♪ and j.d. power and associates ranks lexus the highest in customer satisfaction. no wonder more people have chosen lexus over any other luxury brand 11 years in a row. see your lexus dealer. memorial day weekend is not just time to go to the beach. it's also prime time to get deals on cars. you always see the special sales in the newspaper, but this year, may be a little bit different. cnn's alison kosik explains. >> reporter: two car dealerships, one problem. >> i've never seen anything like this. >> i've never experienced this before. >> reporter: the devastating earthquake struck japan more than two months ago but some of the effects are just now hitting

american soil. automakers aren't operating at full speed and that means we could see a car shortage this summer. >> we're probably going to get about in round numbers, 70 cars a month. we'll be about 30% down for the normal numbers we get this time of year. it's not great. >> typical month, you could be earning anywhere between 140 to 200 vehicles per month, right. so now we're in a situation where we are seeing we are earning anywhere between 40 vehicles a month. that's a drastic reduction. >> reporter: the auto industry has been through tough times before, but what makes this situation so unique is that dealers don't know when things will get back to normal. >> there's still a little bit of uncertainty as far as exactly when we're going to get cars, what we're going to get, what the numbers may be. there's not a good forecast. where normally you could forecast what you're going to get. >> why is it a problem business wise to not be able to forecast? >> because you have to know

whether or not you can -- whether you can pay your bills. >> reporter: and ultimately paying the bills is the issue. >> we have a huge responsibility. we're responsible for people and, you know, we're also responsible for making sure that people's needs are met. it's -- so yeah, if you're asking -- put it this way, i don't sleep very well. >> reporter: unfortunately, there's not much these business owners can do. they don't make the cars and they can't change what's available. they're watching business walk out the door. >> a woman walked in, wanted a specific model. we, you know, unfortunately -- i mean and that's -- it's fine, people when they want what they want. we didn't have it. i just didn't have it. i tried my best. >> reporter: this is a supply and demand business, so with fewer cars available, prices are rising. edmonds.com says overall car prices are up $350 since the earthquake. so, if you want options and lower prices. >> ru really, really need to come out and start looking now if you want to get something. >> thinking about buying a vehicle this calendar year, now is the time because as we've all

experienced, we don't -- we just can't predict what may or may not happen. >> reporter: alison kosik, cnn, new york. what's this option? that's new.

personal pricing now on brakes. tell us what you want to pay. we do our best to make that work. deal! my money. my choice. my meineke. checking top stories. authorities in joplin have lowered the number of missing after sunday's devastating tornado to 156 while raising the number of those killed to at least 132. it's the highest death toll from a single tornado in the united states since recordkeeping began in 1950. in pakistan, the taliban are calling it payback for the killing of osama bin laden. taking responsibility for a blast that killed eight people and wounded another dozen today in